If you’re a business worker, the certification helps you present yourself as truly knowledgeable and differentiates you in a competitive job market. If you’re a hiring manager, identifying candidates with the certifications helps you in making job placement decisions. By hiring candidates with a Microsoft Office Specialist certification you’ll be minimizing training costs.

The highest level in the Microsoft Office Specialist Certification is the Microsoft Office Master Certification. To earn the Master Certification a person must pass the:

• Microsoft Office Word Expert Test

• Microsoft Office Excel Expert Test

• The Microsoft Office Outlook or Access or SharePoint Test (only one of these tests is required).

Microsoft Office Specialist Tests at Uinta B.O.C.E.S. #1 Education Center are available for Microsoft Office 2013 and 2016 Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access. The Word and Excel Tests are available for the Core and Expert Level. PowerPoint, Outlook and Access are only tested at the Core Level.

Exams are primarily performance-based and conducted in a "live," or simulated, environment. Exam candidates are asked to perform a series of tasks to clearly demonstrate their skills. For example, an Office Word exam might ask a user to balance newspaper column lengths or keep text together in columns.

A typical exam takes up to 90 minutes. Individual efforts are measured for both knowledge and efficiency.

You need to register and pay for Certiport tests at the Uinta B.O.C.E.S. #1 Education Center. An individual test costs $90. You can also purchase a voucher for an individual test with the option of one retake if the test is not passed. The cost of this voucher is $110.